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I've been an AMD/ATi fanboy for a long time. I really liked where they where heading in the opensource department too. That said ...

wow, this does look like a really nice and open solution for a mediacenter/htpc. Being able to decode 1080p in hardware with opensource drivers is a big plus for me.

I do have a question though, maybe slightly off-topic. AMD doesn't opensource this bit (yet) because the whole DRM debacle. Now AMD (and nVidia?) say they have specific asic's in their die's for this? UVD, purevideo. Does the intel video chip have this aswell? Or, like I always thought, is UVD, purevideo just some extra functions and does the driver/chip still do most of the heavy lifting via shaders?

the Nvidia pure-video and indeed the AMD UVD3 are fixed function ASIC as in they cant change much about the bug's inside them to remove the problem without ripping them out and totally replacing them all,and can only work software kludges run on whatever's available to them at the time.

however, by all account's the internal Intel Encode/Decoder is more a collection of basic fixed function and full collection of DSP's with a limited related re-programmability, much like the OMAP 4/5 ARM SOC design.

not as good as say simply sticking a bulk purchased state of the art 1.5GHz Achronix FPGA (apparently priced at ASIC prices to compete today) http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-n...artup-Achronix
on there somewhere and charging the end user a few quid more to cover the initial cost's, but far better long term than any fixed function ASIC today as you can just sell add-on functionality and fix found bugs with a simple BIOS/board FPGA update, but apparently that's to expensive and to far an innovative jump for some people in 2011/12, they do love their ASIC markets

So is VA-API + a Core i3-530 now good enough...
Such that one doesn't need to bother with a discrete GT_430* + VDAPU?

*I'm also considering a GTX 560 Ti...
I know it consumes way more power, but it's also a proper gaming card.
I'm a very casual gamer though, so I'm not sure if its worthwhile.
There's a single-slot wc block coming soon that can easily be added to my wc loop.
So the Ti needn't block any of my precious PCI/e slots.

So is VA-API + a Core i3-530 now good enough...
Such that one doesn't need to bother with a discrete GT_430* + VDAPU?

*I'm also considering a GTX 560 Ti...
I know it consumes way more power, but it's also a proper gaming card.
I'm a very casual gamer though, so I'm not 100% sure if it's worthwhile.
There's a single-slot wc block coming soon that can easily be added to my wc loop.
So the Ti needn't block any of my precious PCI/e slots.